Doing the same thing and expecting different results?

While in Bonn at the UN climate talks the EU touts the Paris Agreement, back in Brussels the European Union is set to continue a funding tool that in last two years has lent billions of euros for fossil fuels projects, finds a new study from CEE Bankwatch Network, CAN Europe, Counter Balance and WWF European Policy Office.

Established in 2015 to leverage private capital with money from the EU budget to guarantee risky loans by the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Fund for Strategic Investment – also known as the ‘Juncker Plan’ – has since then doled out EUR 1.85 billion for fossil energy, almost 30 percent of its energy loans, and is increasingly funding carbon-intensive transport like motorways and airports, which have received EUR 2.5 billion since the fund’s inception.

Backed by the European Commission and the EIB as a strong instrument in the fight against climate change, the Juncker Plan will be under the microscope of the Parliament one last time on Wednesday this week, before MEPs are set to approve a proposal from the Commission for a two-year extension to the fund during a vote next month.

Already blasted by the European Court of Auditors for not clearly proving its worth, the Juncker Plan is being further criticised in the NGO report for the shroud of secrecy cloaking its operations. Scant details are offered about the merits of projects that receive an EFSI guarantee, and the fund’s executive body – Investment Committee – does not publish a rationale for its investment decisions, which now total over EUR 20 bn.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results? Analysis of the sustainability and transparency of the European Fund for Strategic Investments